


Take off your shirt

by imkerfuffled



Series: Tumblr Prompts [4]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-20 13:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8251148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imkerfuffled/pseuds/imkerfuffled
Summary: Leonard McCoy and the Case of the Mysteriously Fragile Shirts.





	

It was a common occurrence for Doctor McCoy to squint suspiciously at his captain after one or both of them came back from yet another disastrous away mission, so Kirk had learned to ignore it. What was not common, however, was for McCoy to end the squinting with a barked order to, “Take off your shirt.”

Kirk blinked at him for a second as his brain caught up with his ears. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” McCoy said, “Take off your damn shirt. I want to test something.”

“Now, Bones, don’t you think this is a little public for that sort of thing?” Kirk teased, gesturing from the bed he was sitting on to the rest of the crowded sickbay, full of injured engineers and security from the away mission.

“Shut up before I force you to do all those mandatory physicals you keep putting off.”

With that threat in mind, Kirk complied. The process took somewhat longer than expected, due to numerous large gashes in the fabric being accidentally mistaken for neck and torso holes. By the time Kirk successfully extracted himself from his shirt, McCoy had ordered a nearby yeoman to fetch a new shirt for Kirk, and Spock had drifted over to watch.

McCoy picked up Kirk’s shirt and tugged on it, widening several of the holes. He handed it to Spock, who took it wordlessly and raised one eyebrow in confusion. McCoy then took the shirt the yeoman had returned with—devoid of any holes not intended by the manufacturer—and tugged on it as well. Nothing happened.

“Now put this on,” he said to Kirk.

“Do you have any idea what he’s doing?” Kirk asked Spock.

“You should listen to the doctor, Captain,” was all Spock said in reply.

So Kirk did. It only took a fraction of the time to put on this shirt as it had to remove the other one.

McCoy grabbed Kirk’s sleeve by the shoulder and yanked down on it. He came away with the entirety of the sleeve, as well as half of the collar. A large flap of what remained of the shirt hung down Kirk’s chest.

“Fascinating,” said Spock.


End file.
